Engels to Laura Lafargue

Abstract

November 23, 1884

Friday last the Social Democratic Federation had a benefit. Tussy and Edward played in a piece — I did not go, as I do not as yet see my way to sitting three hours consecutively in a stiff chair. Nim says they played very well — the piece was more or less, she says, their own history. Mother Wright read — very well — Bax played the piano — rather long — Morris who was here the other night and quite delighted to find the Old Norse Edda on my table — he is an Icelandic enthusiast — Morris read a piece of his poetry (a “refonte” of the eddaic Helreid Brynhildar (the description of Brynhild burning herself with Sigurd’s corpse), etc., etc., it went off very well — their art seems to be rather better than their literature and their poetry better than their prose.